Community - "Alternative History of the German Invasion" - Review

The study group has never really branched out beyond their little niche. It’s not entirely unexpected; people frequently get caught up in their own lives at college. The study group is constantly having one crazy adventure after another and, also on top of that, is deeply, deeply codependent and tightknit. However, there’s a much wider world at Greendale. One which the show has slipped in every now and again with some hilarious supporting characters, but due to the fact that we only ever meet these individuals through the perspective of the study group, we never truly see these people as anything except oddballs. But they must have lives beyond their brief, fleeting interactions with the study group. Garrett takes classes; Fat Neil is pursuing Becky; the gang treated Todd like absolute shit.

It's the kernel of good and it's something the series has only touched upon this in passing every now and again; pointing to how the antics of the study group are isolated in a bigger world that gets shut out, but the series never taken it on so directly. It’s an interesting note to play and it’s one the show couldn’t have managed in earlier seasons, but it's also one that the show doesn't necessarily want to play. The group’s reaction to it comes off as slightly hollow. Not that they’d be totally taken by surprised and upset with themselves, nor that they’d do something to fix matters (or “give reparations” as Jeff describes it) , but rather the PSA style cleanup they perform which just doesn’t ring true to these characters. However, the initial thematic and narrative beat reads better than anything the fourth season has done up until now, even if it comes completely out of nowhere. The flashbacks demonstrating how the silliness of the study group that we’ve come to love has been problematic and detrimental to other members of the campus were amusing, if poorly chosen (particularly the one to“Advanced Dungeons and Dragons”), and I’d have liked to have seen them go further with it. 

Malcolm MacDowell was a welcome (if underused) sight as a no-nonsense history professor whose recently been fired from Oxford. His utter straightness worked well in contrast to the rest of the character’s increasingly broad sensibilities. His presence was particularly great for a scene where the study group assumes the Occupy Wallstreet style protest by students angry at them was all a ruse staged to teach them a lesson (as if this were some feel good 90’s sitcom such as Boy Meets World). The way it undercuts this moment after the seven of them talk themselves into this absurd notion is hilarious and the cast bounces off eachother so well in this scene.        

I was surprised to find Chang wasn't the aspect I found most problematic. Chang was always a character the show had problems with especially as it increasingly contrived reasons to keep him around even though the study group wasn’t being taught a class by him. Some of his worse character traits are suppressed (due to what appears to be amnesia or “Changnesia” as that awful reoccurring gag put it) which makes the Dean-Chang scenes slightly bearable. Ken Jeong is good in small doses and this was the right amount of usage of this character. Chang in many ways represents the worse aspects of the show: he’s self-involved; he’s far too broad; he’s far too weird; and when he’s utilized poorly he’s grating and annoying and frustrating and difficult to stomach. That may be an overstatement in terms of parallel to the series, but Chang is the worst handled character and I simply don’t find his character funny. Plus there’s never been enough emotional backing to justify the character beyond his shtick, thus if you don’t find him funny than you’re not going to see any point to his presence. Not to mention him returning at this point stretches all logic, all sense of credulity, all plausibility; they might as well have had him not return. 

The Germans are at times even more frustrating than Chang. It wasn’t like any of us were asking for the series to return to the well and draw out the German caricatures from "Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism". Not only that but we don’t get the original actors but a new trio. This is a shame because Nick Kroll totally sold that group of characters and made them palatable. Here there’s not that underlying level of sincerity to make them rise above stereotypes (which there are plenty of in this episode to mixed results). 

The spoof (Hogan’s Heroes) is way too understated for a show like Community (then again I don't know much about Hogan's Heroes - However, having Jeff outright state the homage that they were attempting was way too on the nose) but if the Hunger Games’ spoof from the premiere is proof, overstating a high concept this far into the show’s run may just not be a good decision.

This is a grab bag of ideas, some of which I thought were really good at least on paper, but most of them didn't work in of themselves or were jarring when put together with everything that came before it.

Stray Observations:

-Jim Rash’s acting when he reacts to Chang’s return is priceless.

-“Hear us out … they offered us money”

- “Damn them and their perfectly crafted time pieces”

-There’s a Little Munich near Greendale. They sell non-FDA approved sausage.

-Displays of nationality and racial and ethnic pride are apparently illegal at Greendale.

-That closing gag just didn't work. "We have a thing," even in the hands of Donald Glover just isn't funny and make the whole segment feel incredibly pointless.

Grade: C+